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User blog:DMUA/The whimpering of an old dog
The sun shined through the windows as the boy stirred awake. The woman beside him was still holding on to him. Good. Warmth was useful, even if it's easier to get than it was in Winter. Getting them off was a bit annoying, but he had gotten used to it. Just gently struggling against their grip worked well enough on this one, too. He got his clothes and armaments together, and stepped outside, walking down the road to meet the rest of the soldiers. Now that everyone had taken a day to rest, it was time to march to the front lines. He had plenty of time to think, as his leather boots crunched through dirt. Not much to ponder, but he noticed that his clothes didn't fit him as well anymore. The tunic was tight in places, and he couldn't move his toes as freely. He'd have to ask for new ones, eventually. The soldiers stood at the edge of the settlement, all armed and ready. All they needed was one more. "Ah, Fen! About time you showed up! I suppose you slept in good company?" The leader of the band waved, as everyone else looked over at the arrival. "As always." "As always? Pfft, what a young man you are, getting to say that!" He didn't respond, as he brushed his hand through his long black hair. "Well, you missed breakfast, but I saved you a share. Time for us to get moving!" He threw some bread Fen's way, which was easily caught and swiftly devoured. ---- The trip took a few days, but nothing but the trudging of boots filled the time. Eventually, they saw a camp in the distance, and even further beyond that, a fortress on a river. Eventually, they came into the camp, and the guards welcomed them, pointing them to a tent where people were planning. Once they got to the tent, it was just as Fen expected. More of the same, impenetrable, key point in defense, a turning point in the war... Fen didn't really care about any of it. He was just going to do the same thing as always. ---- The gates were just ahead. Hundreds of warriors stood at the ready, simply waiting as Fen stepped forward. "So now that your ladders and manpower has failed you, you're sending a boy!? Is this some kind of half assed attempt to mock us?" Fen didn't respond as one of the solders on the wall yelled out. He simply drew his sword, and completely coated it in black, before throwing it forward into the drawbridge that would close the gap between the river and them. "BAHAHAHAHA! THIS REALLY IS A JOKE! GET OUT OF HERE YOU FILTHY-" The laughter that rained down from the walls were immediately silenced, as the gate was covered in black, and came down, shattering the chains it was held by. As everyone simply looked on, Fen stepped forth, and grabbed his sword by the blade, ripping it out from the wood it embedded itself in and letting the darkness covering the gate return to him. "CHARGE!" The awaiting troops rushed forth into the new opening, as the soldiers on top scrambled to respond, drawing their bows and arrows and matching the flood of warriors with their own forces. None of them lasted long, as Fen took his blade by the hilt and cut through swaths of them, leaving the remainder in a state that could not hope to repel what was coming. As the chaos erupted from the walls, two young men on top stood still, calm as everyone rushed into battle. "I thought they reinforced the gate. It should have been well refined against that..." "They did." "... What? How did one soldier tear it down if we didn't leave any openings?" "Ah, my friend... You really need to learn how to see strength. For things like this, you should focus on Energeia, not stature." He gave a brief look of skepticism, before closing his eyes to heed such advice. "That... Feels just like you, in the opposite way. Dark Aurament, like a thick black spot on the battlefield." "Oh? A rival? You really shouldn't excite me so much. I could get reckless." "I didn't meet you yesterday. If you ever had interest, discouragement wouldn't actually deter you." "At least you're paying attention." With that, he jumped into the fray, soaring over the enemy forces and landing ahead of their advance. As the mass of soldiers recoiled and halted their march, he stood up, letting both his long white hair, and the cloak he had to conceal his armor flow in the wind. "I see you've broken through every other line of defense. Luckily for you all, I'm still here, so you should be able to get your fair share of challenge, right?" The soldiers looked confused for a moment, as Fen simply stared on with disinterest. "Allow me to introduce myself as Sol, the guiding light to the people in this stronghold. Pretentious as it might sound, I find it to be my heroic duty to defend this place, just as it's your duty to attack. Would any of you like to share your names?" The soldiers' confusion only grew at this strange expression of outdated ideals, before they simply chuckled and charged forth. "Well, not like I was going to remember them with such a crowd." Sol simply lifted his hand, before firing a blinding hail of lasers, instantly searing through the wave of men and leaving them on the ground, helpless. Fen let down his wall of black that he made between himself and the incoming fire, and looked at Sol, tilting his head in minor intrigue. "Ah... You know, sometimes I hate the Aurament I was born with. Sure, it allows me to take out most of my enemies with an attack they can't even process, but whenever someone is actually strong, it just doesn't do anything. A real shame, don't you think?" "Fen." "Huh?" "You asked for my name earlier. I gave it to you, now let's get this over with." Before Sol could give his reply, Fen rushed forward, swinging his sword forth at blistering speed, to which Sol barely responds by drawing his blade and clashing with the attack, knocking him back. He didn't have much of a chance to recuperate, as Fen continued forward and swung again and again. "Well now! I guess this is what a strike from an equal is supposed to feel like, with how strong we both are? I haven't gotten much practice. I mean-" Fen continued his assault, paying no mind to Sol's words as he swung again and again, driving the light user back and creating countless cracks in the ground beneath them as he made each strike. "You really aren't having fun with this, are you?" With that, Fen gritted his teeth and punched Sol in the face, sending him tumbling through house after house, eventually shattering a portion of the walls. Another onslaught of lasers came forth in reaction, forcing Fen to make yet another barrier as Sol closes the gap, eventually getting close enough to swing his blade forward and clash yet again. "Well, I'll let you have my focus, then. You probably already earned it from the beginning, but just so you're aware..." Both parties swung again and again, their blades clanging against each other in a constant roar of battle. Everyone looked on, simply idle as these two, no older than 15, let their song and dance of battle ring through their ears. With either evenly matched, Fen kicked Sol's sword arm, sending it far off course as he swung his blade in an overhead swing, only to be met by Sol sweeping his off-hand over Fen's eyes, creating a flash of light that left him just open enough for Sol to drive his sword into Fen's stomach. "Huh. I was expecting more-" Fen grabbed Sol's shoulder and thrust his own blade into them in turn. "... Finality." Both of them stumbled back, pulling their blades out and spilling more blood onto the battlefield. "... This... cough... Battle is lost! Everyone retreat, and let this man do the same. He's our equ cough- equal, respect him!" Holding his arm to his wound, Sol made his way to the remainder of his allies. Fen watched for a moment, then made the mistake of looking down. The wound felt far more visceral upon inspection. As his hand made contact with the blood and acids spilling forth, the pain made Fen fall to the ground, before taking his consciousness. ---- The sun shined through the windows as the boy stirred awake. His eyes took in the surroundings; he was laid out on a blanket, in a building with several other injured laying around. "You won the battle. We're set up in the fortress right now." Fen sat up and turned his head to the voice. A girl about his age stood above him, looking down with a small smile on her face. She had green hair, though it was mostly hidden in the hood that was apart of her dress. "You're Fen right? It was hard to not see the display you put on, fighting that other guy. You must be pretty stro-" "If you want me to fuck you, save the song and dance." The girl's eyes widened in surprise, as her whole body seemingly froze. "Ugh... what?" "That's all women want from me. They talk about how impressive I am for my age, then they try to get me to sleep with them." "Ugh... I'm sure there are other patients, you seem... well off, on your own." Taking the opportunity, the girl immediately runs out of sight. "What is with that kid? All I did was talk to him and he thinks I want his children! Who does he think he is?" The girl looked back over to Fen. He had stood up in the meantime, and was talking to the leader of the mercenaries he had come with. The leader was happy to see him, with a smile on his face and a hand on Fen's shoulder as he spoke. Fen didn't care about any of it. He simply looked on, until the one sided conversation eventually ended. As the leader walked off, Fen sat back down, his head hanging. "... Maybe there's more to this." The girl walked back over to where Fen was. He turned his head to look at her, as she sat next to him and held his hand. "My name is Viveca, by the way." Fen looked a bit confused at this gesture, then just shrugged. ---- "This is getting ridiculous." As Viveca reached for his hand, he swiftly pulled it away and glared at her. "We've been marching for the past two days and you've insisted on holding my hand the whole time. You already turned down sex, what do you want from me?" "I told you, I just want to be kind." "It doesn't make any more sense than the last time you said it. People don't just do things like that, it doesn't get them anywhere." Fen turned away and started to march alongside the rest of the soldiers, trying to get away. Viveca kept pace. "Not everything can just be about what lets them survive, you know. What will it take to convince you?" "Ask me when I'm drunk on an entire keg of beer and maybe I'll buy it." Viveca pouted a bit, as silence followed them down the road. ---- The plan was to raid a small village on the way to their next target, get some food and force them to surrender. Unfortunately, the complications only continued to pile up as they arrived. Viveca quickly ran to the front of the army, waving her arm in the air to get the leader's attention "They expected us! I can sense a lot of fighters just ahead!" "HALT!" The leader called out to his men, stopping the march. "How many?" "About a hundred capable men, from what I can see here. Not to mention, something feels... off. Like there's something that absolutely shouldn't be here, beyond military. Some presences are having something... Happen to them." The leader mulled over Viveca's words for a moment, figuring out a plan of attack as Fen started to finally catch up. "Well..." The leader turned around to face everyone else. "There's only one way forward!" He drew his blade and lifted it into the air. "THE HARD WAY!" All the soldiers yelled a battle cry and charged ahead. Viveca and Fen both just nodded and joined in. ---- They weren't exactly met with resistance. As they moved into the village, panic came from both the peasants being thrown into war sooner than they expected, and the soldiers realizing some of their member are aging and dropping dead. The leader halts the attack as they near the scene. "I'm guessing that's what was so wrong?" "Yeah... It looks like their very lives are being drained away." Just as that's said, and yet another man falls, something everyone can feel emerges. The army backed off, save for Fen and Viveca, the latter of whom ran forward as the surroundings began to fade away. "Sand Aurament. Realm Creation Sorcery - No Life Sea." The environment shifted, covering as far as the eye can see with nothing but a flat desert landscape. "Inconvenient that I would have to deal with a military invasion just as I started to gather life, but, I suppose that just means I'll have all the more to work with." A being floated down to the ground, with the appearance of a normal woman. But, the thing was anything but. A svectral. Everyone reacted differently. The soldiers and peasants caught in the effect wore looks of utter horror, now recognizing that they're trapped here with something out for their very life force, Viveca bore a grim determination, and Fen was mostly indifferent. Fen charged forward, sword in hand and ready to strike, as a wave of sand forced him backward, only to be in turn pushed back by much of it being corrupted by dark power. As that clash came to be, Viveca went around, sprouting tumbleweeds and making a wall of tendrils to block the Svectral off from those they had yet to drain. "Defending others too weak to survive... What foolishness." As Fen quickly repelled the first assault, the Svectral made use of the sand that Viveca rooted her plants in, bringing a yet greater tide to swallow him, which was met with yet greater resistance from his darkness corrupting it. "You of all people should understand it... Princess." As she was about to make another desperate barrier, Viveca stopped. "I've been around for longer than you think. I more than recognize your Energeia. I just don't understand how someone raised at the top of her world could be so naive..." "My father sent me with the army to learn the value of the people that it is the King or Queen's duty to defend. I'm not going to stop simply because a monster said a few key words!" As Fen was nearly swallowed by the wave, he just barely redirected it, sending it crashing to the wayside. "You get it, don't you? Survival of ourselves and our species are the only real things in life." Fen thought for a moment, and nodded his head. "Well, pity that such a truth forces us to slay each other. Speaking of..." "Sand Sorcery, Torrent." Suddenly, the landscape shifted, as the sands started swirling in a fashion akin to a whirlpool, sending Fen and Viveca off their balance and tearing at flesh in the process. "I'll go have my meal before I finish this fight. Best to have my strength, after all." Viveca gritted her teeth, and started creating roots in every direction, making a sort of spider web for her and Fen both to hang onto. "Maintaining this is going to take a lot of power... You need to go up there and make sure she can't get more life than she already has!" Fen understood, and in a flash, ran across the network of roots to meet his target, who stood outside her torrent and before her prisoners, with a hand on one of their heads. Before she could make progress draining their life, Fen gripped his blade in both hands and swung with all his might... Only striking a Sandy formation that used to be his opponent. "Your aurament is impressive. I can't drown you in sand when you can cover it in darkness and turn it back on me..." As Fen turned around to swing again, the Svectral took a step back and, with a wave of her hand, slashed a slit out of Fen's arm with a blast of sand. "Unfortunate I'm not so limited." Blood ran down Fen's arm, as he continued to stand strong with blade in hand. "It's not unfortunate. This is well within your favor, isn't it?" "Well, keep up such wit and I may mourn you." "Saying what already fits into your mentality isn't clever." "I suppose. But, it's truth all the same." The Svectral launched another jet of sand, which Fen quickly sidestepped before swinging again, meeting The Svectral as it turned yet again into sand, reforming atop Viveca's web of roots. "If you're going to force me into fighting you, I'll do it where it favors me. The more you wait over there to fight, the more I'll regain Energeia from m-" Fen didn't wait for their words, running forward to keep up the attack against the Svectral. They dueled upon the narrow paths left to them, as Fen swung his blade against the Svectral, who let themselves turn to sand to render it useless, before following up with slashes from the surroundings. Sand tore into Fen's flesh from all sides, some going into his nose before being corrupted and repelled. The fight dragged on, Fen continuing to swing and the Svectral continuing to move across the roots to avoid his strikes. As Fen made another swing, the Svectral instead charged straight into it, phasing into sand again before materializing and kicking Fen straight into the surrounding storm, tearing at his flesh even further as he was thrown about. As the Svectral observed, Viveca quickly raced across the roots, preparing to throw a punch... And just as the Svectral faded to sand, revealed it was a feint, before opening her mouth and swallowing a large portion of what used to be their body. As they reformed, they found a good portion of their stomach missing, causing them to immediately double over in pain. "DAMN SCUM!" Before the Svectral could even reach her hand out to forcefully pull the sand from their body, Fen, finally finding balance and corrupting the sand around them, threw themselves forward, driving their sword straight through their head. ---- "... I never thought I'd use it like this..." Fen took a moment before he realized that the scenery changed. Not to the village they were in before the realm creation sorcery was raised... Rather, they were in the blank landscape of Fen's mind. "I had set this up as a failsafe... If I were to go into a state where I was sure to die, such as a sword going straight through my head, my life energy would be spent on sending my mind and soul into whomever killed me, and thereby allow me to send them into a coma and take it over. It's worked for a long time... but there's something different about you. A kinship, perhaps." "Tch. All I did was say a few words you agreed with and then we fought." "But those words said plenty on their own. Enough... that I won't snuff you out. I would merely be destroying something I can easily use to my favor." "Then what?" "I will let you assimilate my being and power, so we may both live in yet greater prosperity. After all.. you don't even need to think on my Master's terms to say there is no difference between us." "... Whatever. Do it." And with no more words, the Svectral dissolved into his being. ---- "... We won. Are you going to keep staring off into space?" Fen snapped back into reality to see Viveca on the ground, still coughing out bloody chunks of sand. "... Did you... actually eat, part of that thing?" "... Well, it was one good way to stop them from reforming." Viveca chuckled a bit, before coughing more. Fen looked over to the distance, seeing a few soldiers yet fleeing. "... What about them?" "No reason to shed more blood then we need to. They're all still people in this kingdom of ours." Fen looked at them, with more than a bit of incredulity. "... I mean, I was serious about my mission. My father sent me into the army to experience all this firsthand." Fen shrugged, and walked off to regroup with the rest of his soldiers. ---- Fen looked up at the barrel slammed onto the table before him. "... Is that..." "An entire keg of beer. Now drink up." Fen stared blankly for a moment. Then, as a smirk creeped onto his face, he took the whole thing and started chugging. Many seconds passed, as the other mercenaries in the bar started to take notice and were stunned into silence. Eventually, the keg was slammed back down onto the table, as Fen leapt from his seat and wrapped his arm over Viveca's shoulders. "hErE's tO tHe pOwEr oF lOvE aNd fRiEnDsHiP, wHiCh hAs wOn tHe dAy!?" Everyone began to laugh hysterically at the display, as more drinks were passed around in proportion to the absurdity of their song and dance. Category:Blog posts Category:Stories